Garry Templeton, center, scores from second on an Alan Wiggins hit for San Diego and ties the ballgame at 3-3 in the fourth inning of the World Series at Tiger Stadium, Sunday, Oct. 14, 1984, Detroit, Mich. Teammate Tony Gwynn, right, stands over him. (AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)

DETROIT >> Since he played the vast majority of his 20-year career before Interleague Play, fans of the Detroit Tigers may have limited memories of Tony Gwynn, other than him making the last out in the 1984 World Series, with a fly ball to left fielder Larry Herndon.

But several members of the current team had much more personal memories of the San Diego Padres Hall of Famer, who passed away from cancer at the age of 54 on Monday.

“He’s just a good person. As good of a player as he was, he was just a good, regular guy. He’d talk to anybody like they were his next-door neighbor,” said manager Brad Ausmus, whose career big-league career started in San Diego, just as Gwynn’s was ending. “When I first went to the big leagues with San Diego, Tony kind of took a couple of the young guys under his wing.”

And it wasn’t just teammates.

Torii Hunter’s 18-year career overlapped Gwynn’s by five seasons, giving him a chance to meet him in his formative baseball years.

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“He was a better man (than player). He was awesome. He didn’t have to talk to this young guy named Torii. I had a chance to talk to him, chat with him. Also, he shared some information as far as playing the game, hitting,” said Hunter, who sponged up information from Gwynn, like he had from Hall of Fame teammate Kirby Puckett.

“That’s something that I will cherish forever, just like all the other players that kind of poured into me. He’s one of those guys. I definitely think that he’s gonna be missed. I know he will.”

When Gwynn’s Padres made it to the 1984 World Series to face the Tigers, he hit .351, the first of his eight batting titles. In 1994, before the strike, he was hitting .394. Had the strike not happened, there was a chance he could’ve been the first player to hit .400 since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941.

“There was a lot of talk about that. It seemed like the guy never made an out, when you played with him. Everything he touched seemed to find a hole. His teammates were happy for him, and jealous of him,” Ausmus said. “He was very good. He was as good as anybody I’ve ever seen putting the fat part of the bat on the ball.”

Gwynn also rarely struck out. His only three-strikeout game came in 1986 against Hazel Park native Bob Welch, who died a week ago.

More than anything, Gwynn loved to talk hitting — whether it was with Williams, or with young teammates.

“All the time,” Ausmus said. “Tony was very good with a couple of the young guys. He took us under his wing, talked to us about hitting, talked to us about coaching.”

Gwynn put the same emphasis on learning things that he did to learning the game of baseball, and the art of hitting. Even golf.

“We used to have a four-some of golf, during the strike of ‘94, offseasons — we used to play golf until I stopped playing because I wasn’t getting any better,” Ausmus said. “We started out even, then Tony kept getting better and I wasn’t, so I let Tony play on his own.”

He was innovative in how he learned, too, employing video before almost anyone else.

“He was really the first guy I played with that delved into video. He had the little mini-8 player. In fact, I got one. He’d get the videos on the little cassettes and you could play them anywhere, portable video player. He was the first guy that really analyzed things on video, not only what he was doing, but what the pitcher was doing,” said Ausmus, who worked for the Padres front office before taking the Tigers job.

“Video’s taken off, really, since that time. As a matter of fact, the Padres ended up putting in a big expensive video unit in the clubhouse because of Tony.”